Page 133 of Grave Beginnings

Magic erupted from us both in a torrent of energy, crackling and raging in fluorescent purple ribbons of power, searing my vision with afterimages of brightness. Blue-hair slipped his hand around the back of my neck to hold me in place as he slapped his free hand on the ground like a wrestler calling a match.

The air snapped and shuddered, then retracted, sinking back into the rift as the edges of it began to reseal. The half-emerged monster vanished back through the Veil with a reverberating howl of rage for having been unable to free itself.

The pressure in the room plummeted, my ears popping as the portal imploded with a thunderous crash. The backlash sent a shockwave through the floor, marble splintering in a jagged, colossal crack that spiderwebbed a dozen feet, spraying dust and debris into the air.

Angel snarled and shoved blue-hair hard enough to send him crashing a few feet away. He scooped me up into his arms, rage pouring off him in waves as though it took everything in him to keep from tearing the man apart. I wrapped my arms around Angel, trying to stay conscious as well as calm his anger.

“I’m okay,” I grumbled, though my lips burned and my body trembled, the edges of darkness pooling around my vision. I fought the rising tide of blackness, blinking at the blue-haired guy and gasping for breath. What the hell had he done?

“What the fuck was that?” Angel snarled, putting himself between me and the new guy.

“Your boyfriend is demon spawn. I needed to borrow his power to seal it. He’ll be fine.” His gaze flicked to the space where the rift had been. Though the snapping and snarling of the Veil through the building continued, without the open tearspewing monsters, it was little more than a ripple. “The link to this Veil tear and that nightmare prison has been severed, but I’d advise everyone to clear the building anyway. What little is left on this side will be dragged across soon.”

The SED teams streamed around us, with Victor arriving at our side, handing a shirt to Angel to cover his nudity. “Who’s hurt?” He blinked, his eyes going black as he narrowed his gaze on me. “Why are you bleeding? And smelling like fae?”

“Uh… broken jar?” The world swayed around the edges of my sight. “Don’t let Angel kill blue-hair guy.”

“Medic is on the way,” Kerry said from somewhere behind Victor. “Is that our missing practitioner? And the Thayerson kid?”

“Yeah,” blue-hair said. “Remington Woodward.” He scooted behind Ezra, keeping the shifter between himself and Angel. “I suspect you’ll find a changeling in place of the kid on this side. Thanks for the assist,” he told me. “One second, I was in the damn field studying the magic they used, the next, I was waking up in that tube.”

I tried to answer, words falling from my lips in little more than a stuttering mess of incoherence as I leaned into Angel’s body heat. Wade arrived with a handful of medics. Someone took the kid from Ezra and began looking over the other two. Angel snapped at them until Wade crowded him and wrapped his arms around me to pull me out of his grip.

“I’ve got him, Angel. Let them help.” Wade set me carefully on the ground, using himself as a shield between me and Angel as one of the medics unwrapped my knees.

The bandages dripped with blood. My vision swam at the sudden pain of air hitting the wounds, and I got my first good look at them. Holy fuck, was that bone? “Uh…” The pain was sharp and intense, a deep burning that ricocheted through my entire body. I gasped for air, the darkness of my vision making more sense as I realized it wasn’t only the power drain but also loss of blood.

“Fuck,” Wade cursed as the EMTs began to work, triaging the wounds. “We need to get him to a hospital.”

Panic set in at the thought of going to the hospital.

Angel slipped past Wade and wrapped his arms around my chest, hiding the damage as they brought out a board to put me on.

“Don’t leave me,” I begged, uncertain if he understood me.

“I won’t,” he promised.

The world moved in slow motion, the pain heightening until my vision narrowed to tiny pinpricks and I sucked air as if breathing through a straw.

“I think he’s going into shock,” Wade said as an EMT pressed a mask to my nose, giving me air. “Breathe, Holt.”

I sucked in air and focused on Angel, who pressed his face against mine, whispering sweet, comforting things I couldn’t understand in the moment. There were shouts, and I blinked at the chaos for half a heartbeat before darkness slid over my vision and I passed out.

48

I woke to Angel pacing.The beep of machines surrounded me, a fluid bag on a pole to my right and an open door separating us from others in what I recognized as an emergency room.

“Hey,” Angel said, leaning over me.

“Do I want to know how bad the damage is?” I asked him, feeling lightheaded but pain free. They must have had me on some really good drugs to feel so good.

“There is none,” Angel said. His gaze flicked to the open doorway. “It’s healed.”

“Uh… I saw bone,” I said.

“Yeah.” He stared at me, gaze assessing and worried. “Part of it is our bond. The rest… you mentioned you saved something in the other place? A fairy or something?”

I blinked, brain slowly churning through the memory of the little creature stuck in the goo. “I don’t know what it was.”